Atoll still scarred by tests

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Unexpectedly high levels of radioactive contamination are being
discovered in French Polynesia almost a decade after nuclear
testing ended on Mururoa Atoll, says the territory's President,
Oscar Temaru.

Up to five people a day are being sent to private hospitals in
Auckland for diagnosis and treatment for what may be
radiation-related illnesses, officials say.

Mr Temaru has accused the French Government of covering up the
health and environmental consequences of the testing.

France conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear tests over the Tuamotu
atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa between 1966 and 1974.

It followed these with 134 underground nuclear tests at the same
testing sites between 1975 and 1991. Eight more tests took place in
1995 and 1996.

In July Mr Temaru set up a commission of inquiry to investigate
the tests. It was due to report back next month.

But he said the French Ministry of Defence was refusing to
co-operate with the commission and was keeping secret files in
Paris while insisting that Mururoa and Fangataufa were still off
limits.

"One of them [commission members] told me they found out very
strange, very high levels of contamination from the atoll of
Tureia."

Tureia, 115 kilometres north-east of Mururoa, has about 100
people. It is the closest resident population to the test
sites.

The inquiry commission head, Tea Hirshon, said its aim was to
make a precise assessment of the effects of nuclear tests on the
environment and the health of the Polynesians. "The major question
put forth was to know whether or not the Mangarevans still live in
a contaminated environment."

The news agency Tahitipresse reported last week that Bruno
Chareyron, head of the independent French Commission on
Radioactivity Research and Information, was unable to say whether
there is or was radioactivity on Mangareva, in the Gambier
Islands.

At the inquiry hearing on Mangareva, 450 kilometres south-east
of Mururoa, witnesses talked of "an accident" on July 2, 1966,
after which the French military bought vegetables in Papeete
instead of locally and talked about children being covered with
wounds after an atmospheric test.

A witness also told of an important French military official
going to the island and leaving abruptly after a test.